About a month ago, I found out my cousin Karen was going to be in Chicago for a conference – and since she’s here, we had to see her while she was in town. I haven’t seen her in person for almost 3 years! Kind of crazy it’s been that long. One thing we were trying to decide on was where to go for dinner. I originally thought Girl and the Goat, but since I didn’t make reservations a long time ago, that was out – so the next best thing….THE LITTLE GOAT!

If you don’t know about The Girl and the Goat or The Little Goat, they are owned by local chef Stephanie Izard. She won Top Chef which has enabled her to have restaurants – be a cookbook author and all around awesome foodie.

I have met her in person several times. The first was at my nieces wedding – she was the maid of honor! And I stalked her at the reception for a little bit. Then last year, while volunteering for Chicago Gourmet, I worked the celebrity chef cookbook signing, and she was one of the chefs there. Could not have been a nicer person!

See? We are like best friends here!

Since it was a Tuesday, I wasn’t sure what kind of wait we would have. My sister, Mom and I drove downtown to meet my cousin and since she had gotten there first, we didn’t have to wait for a table at all – score!

I immediately liked how open the space was and how bright and cheery it was – as well as the skylight and lighting

After discussing my dinner plans with 2 of my friends at work (Hi Damian and Archit!) I pretty much knew what I was getting before I got there…

It was amazing!! I ate the whole thing! super tender beef, great flavors, the bread was awesome – so happy I got it!

We were going to have the goat cheese chili fries, but my cousin isn’t a huge fan of cheese, so we opted for the hot crab dip with ritz crackers – also amazing, I would have licked the dish if no one was looking!

My sister and cousin got burgers, my Mom had the fish tostadas – everyone gave it a thumbs up!

Even though we were all stuffed, we shared dessert – my mom got the blueberry pie with goat cheese gelato. My cousin and I shared a chocolate chip pie with vanilla ice cream. The pie was warm on the inside!

After dinner, we wanted to go to the rooftop deck and check out the view, but sadly there was a private party

But I did get to see where they make the bread! Someone was already kneading dough for tomorrow!!

If you haven’t been there yet, you have to go!! Check out their website HERE. They are open early for breakfast, lunch, dinner AND late night!!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! My name is Jennifer and I am a wife and Mom to 3 great kids -18, 16 and 12. I work full time but in my spare time, I'm a chef in my kitchen, whipping up awesome mostly healthy foods for my family and creating new recipes. I love blogging, social media, recipe development, and helping people create their own sites using Wordpress. E-mail me any comments or questions at slim-shoppin@comcast.net